Nottingham Nick

benchy

Have a great trip - be sure to give us your impressions of PE - and the VS service in general when you get back.

Nick

ojs555

Benchy, if laptop power's important to you why not go World Traveller Plus on BA?

All their seats in WT+ have laptop power.

RichardMannion

Hi Everyone,

Quite a few strands here in this thread, hopefully I shoudl catch them all:-

- Suites on LGW routes - this will happen, but LHR routes willbe doen in turn first.

Oh and on the WT+ point, I have known on very busy routes where they actually switch off the power in W cabin due to the demand for power in the J and F cabins. Bit of a sore point as BA use Empower as a selling point.

VPORT is linked to the Empower system rollout wise. All the Airbus 600's have the VPORT and Empower system in W and J. All J seats regardless of route and plane have Empower. The Boeing 400's with VPORT have Empower in W.

As for paying for upgrades on the day, it also depends on route. A few times I ahve paid for upgrades from Economy to Premium, East Coast was �199/oneway and West Coast was �399. This was about 4 years ago though....

Thanks,
Richard

CT-UK

I have never heard of this. Also I am 99% sure that the power is set to safely run at 120% of total utilisation.

rabbitman

I have had this quite a few times on UA

DCBritboy

I've never known that happen either, I've sat in WT+ many a time this year with the plane at capacity and used the power. Blessing in disguise when I've got bored with the IFE and want to watch ye olde british sitcoms.

cheers, richard

CT-UK

Yes but on BA as I said I am sure the whole systems is capable of 120% load. Each indavdual seat has its only limit.

benchy

No, it isn't that important to me, I was just asking. I have lived in the UK for a long time and I think that VS has a far better service than BA, so I rather give my money to VS, laptop power or not.

mcuth

Pixuk

I'm new to this site & board, so forgive me if this has been covered :-)

You mentioned about buying upgrades at the airport, and also operational upgrades.

Now, I'm a silver member (~25k miles/20 TP after spending 60k miles this year) and am due to fly out to MCO in March on business - will be booked straight into PE on a W class ticket.

This'll be my 9th London-US return trip in just over 2 years (mostly pleasure, but a couple of business trips).

I've previously done upgrades from Y class Economy to both PE (return) & UC (one-way) in advance using miles, but I'm new to buying, requesting or being granted an upgrade at the airport. Are there any strategies/nice phrases :-D that you can recommend?

Cheers

Michael

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Only one way to fly - Virgin

pixuk

Welcome to the Virgin board, mcuth. I'm sure everyone here will do their best to make you feel at home.

Upgrades - Well, you'll find lots of 'strategies' all over the place. Most are myth - the only sure-fire way is to buy an Upper Class seat to start off with, I'm afraid

You can buy an upgrade at the airport. A couple of 'gotcha's' on this method though. It depends on whether they are available, and then you might end up paying more for a 2-way upgrade on top of your original ticket price than a discounted (Z Fare) Upper ticket in the first place. The price you pay mostly depends on the original cost of your ticket. On the consolidator (discounted and Virgin Holiday) tickets, they don't show the actual price so the ticket desk usually charge the flat rate of 599 GBP per leg upgrade. There are some exceptions to this, when you may see signs at the ticket desk advertising Upgrades. When VS have an incentive to sell upgrades cheap (ie, because the flight is overbooked in Y or W), you might get a better deal.

You can also upgrade your ticket with miles - BUT, there are restrictions. For advance upgrades, you have to have the right ticket type to start with. If it is heavily discounted, then you can't do it. Your 'W' class ticket should be fine, and IMHO using miles for upgrades is a pretty good idea.

At the airport, the rules for upgrading a ticket with miles can be a little more flexible. If you've got status (VS Gold, for example), or the flight is overbooked and they need to make some moves; a normally un-upgradeable ticket can be made upgradeable. This particular strategy can sometimes cause aggrevation when VS don't need to upgrade, and the passenger gets annoyed that they can't use miles to upgrade. Rule 1 kicks in then - if you *have* to sit in Upper, buy the right ticket!

Operational - the freebie upgrades. This is where most of the myth about upgrades exists. Some strategies using a thing called 'The Speech'. Personally I don't think any of those have any real effect; if VS need to upgrade some folks, and you are on their radar, then you might get lucky.

Some of the things that will get you on that 'radar' include; Get status; Don't order a special meal; Travel alone; Leave the kids at home.

Other tips that I have noticed over the years; Get to the airport early and never bug the check in staff about upgrades constantly - be nice to them!

Hope to see you on FlyerTalk and our little Virgin site at virginflyer.com regularly,

Pix

mcuth

Hi Pix

Thanks for the welcome

Surprisingly, I've only just come across this place & virginflyer.com over the last week or so. I like the look of virginflyer.com, so I registered & posted tonight, then stuck the wap address into my phone

Thanks for the info about upgrades - even though I'm classing myself as a fairly frequent flyer, they've seemed to be a bit of a mystery - especially how you're supposed to broach the subject at check-in. Even as a Yorkshireman (albeit living in Reading), I'm a bit wary about asking for summat for nowt

Most of the folks at work seem to get them automatically, even though they're not FF - think that's because I work for quite a large multi-national & we make a lot of bookings to the US. That's not happened to me on the business trips I've made (yet).

I'm quite into this using miles to upgrade - when I fly for holidays, the UC fares are a little out of my reach since I at the rate I'm going, I'm making LHR > SFO about 3 times a year. On my last return from SFO, I'd upgraded Y class to PE round trip prior to the outbound leg. For the return leg, I rang up 3 days before travel and upgraded to UC for a (net) 20k miles & $50 change fee - top class value, especially the SFO lounge (I got more value from having the bed on the way back since I'm 6ft 2).

This sounds really tight (fits in with the Yorkshireman eh?), but I'm a little bit loathe to use my own miles to upgrade a business trip

I'm definitely on the 'radar' though - I always travel alone, got "some" status, no kids and I'll eat anything they put in front of me.... that, and I'm *always* nice to all the staff I meet (I'm nice to *most* people actually), they do such a good job!

FWIW in case you hadn't guessed yet, I *love* flying VA - I've not had any problems with them ('cept for the IFE not working sometimes, but I've always ended up being compensated with miles and having a DVD player anyway), and all the service I've received has been excellent. A minor bugbear is using Nova IFE on LGW > MCO - even as a (ahem) "mature and professional" person, I still like to play games on a long flight.

The only time I flew BA (yes, I did that...but only once!), I got poor service, a shoddy plane, and they lost my luggage - wouldn't mind if it was a multi-segment journey, but it was SFO > LHR *sigh*

Cheers

Michael

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Only one way to fly - Virgin

pixuk

Hi Michael,

I did once know an MD that used to brag about always getting free upgrades, but it turned out he was sneeking off and paying for them. I think his reasoning was he wanted to travel a premium class, but didn't want his employees to think he was booking up front while the company policy (he had set) said economy was the norm. Bizzare

How to broach the subject of upgrades at check in? Hmmm - good question! Because so many people ask about upgrades these days, check in staff can get quite cheesed off with the constant stream of requests. Try to avoid it being a blatant first question!

You could ask how busy the flight is. If the flight looks empty, upgrades aren't happening anyway, so no need to push the point. If your check in agent tells you the flight is full, then you can enquire about upgrades (and one possible suggestion is to ask how many miles it would be to move up a class).

From my experience, most upgrades will have been sorted before you even get to the check in desk; so if you're lucky you'll be told as you check in that you've been selected. That's always a most welcome treat! Getting yourself a Gold Card should be your next priority

Above all, whatever class you're booked into; enjoy your flight and don't moan that you didn't get something you didn't pay for (and that comment isn't directed at you Michael, BTW, but rather at the ungrateful so-and-so's that moan their flight was ruined because they weren't upgraded!).

Pix.

p.s. I have no problem using miles to upgrade a business trip, since being self-employed these days I have to pay for both types of travel anyway

mcuth

Hi Pix

Thanks - that's what I was nervous about - I do enjoy the way I get treated by the check-in staff, I wouldn't want to abuse that

Good call, thanks. Offering cash or miles first wouldn't make it seem like a "freeloader" question huh? Any experience with it being better or worse coming back from the US?

Oh, I'm trying, I'm trying - w/ 25 days holiday p.a. and UC on every trip being a little out of reach when most of my travel is for pleasure, it get's a bit hard *sigh*

Totally understand where you're coming from - I'm just happy to enjoy flying with VA, they've not ruined anything for me so far

LOL! I'm thinking about maybe doing the self-employed stuff next year...just got to come up with a good enough business model

Cheers

Michael

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Only one way to fly - Virgin

amhilde

Hello all-

Ive seen this forum mentioned a few times over at a.net, and I thought I would check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice little group of VS FFs over here!

Ive been a Silver for about 6 years now, and have about 85K in the bank (after last flight two weeks ago), but would definitely like to learn more about the ins and outs of the program so as to better leverage the miles and my flying experience haha. My "home" airport for VS is LAX and I fly about 3-5 times a year on them always in Economy unfortunately ( Im only in my mid 20s and have to pay my own way at the moment). Ive flown LAX/SFO-LHR 19 times in the past 6 years, and all but one of them have been on VS ( I tried United once and was appalled- I honestly dont think it necessary for an F/A to come around to shut the shades with a coat hanger). Its always been great service with nice planes, even if sometimes the IFE goes on the fritz or there are some curious and annoying passengers around you, but the benefits of VS far outweight these slight issues.

Mcuth, I was curious, you were flying a full fare economy for that return leg out of SFO and you called a few days ahead of time and they upgraded you direct to UC for that small amount? Did you call one of the special frequent flyer lines or were there any other sort of unique circumstances that made this a one off deal? Why three days in advance? (is that important at all? ) I got a UC upgrade once and it was an amazing experience, but im loathe to use 60K miles just to upgrade a ticket when I can use them instead to head out to HKG or somewhere else. And Im not so sure that PE is marginally worth the extra cost with the same meals as in coach and a slightly larger seat. Any tip you can give would be appreciated!

NottinghamNick- I just wanted to say that I was in your fair city not two weeks ago visiting some friends/colleagues at Nottingham Trent University and really really enjoyed the East Midlands and Nottingham in particular. I had been up to Lufbra earier in the year and thought it somewhat quaint, but the city center, shopping, and general atmosphere of Nottingham was wonderful- I was rather disappointed to have to return to the insanity of London. Hoping to pop back up in the area in March!

pixuk

Michael,

With regard to your question as to whether it's any better or worse from the US to the UK - everyone wants the upgrade on the way back (so they can sleep on the night flight). Definately worth 'buying' and upgrade either with miles or cash just on the return leg

Amhilde - Welcome along. I was in Reno myself, but that was about 6 years ago Great city though.

Pix.